sudden vertigo and antibiotics

I had a sudden episode of 'going over the edge' vertigo while driving. It 'froze' me...as the road seemed to 'flip' and I felt I was going 'off rhe edge'. I stopped suddenly, and was just shaking in cold fear. A CHP officer (luckily) came along the off-ramp, and helped me. He moved my car, and had me taken to the nearby hospital in Sacramento. After all the usual 'scans' etc. were done, no one could find anything "wrong'. An ER doctor came on at the shift change, and was asking me all kinds of questions.  Suddenly, he said.."oh, that's most likely the cause....after he asked about meds, and I said I was on long term MINOCYCLINE for acne.  He said it was rare, but notorious for causing exactly what I had happen to me. I was stunned....this wasn't just 'dizziness' ...it was incapacitating!!  He said he had seen it before, and that once it has happened, (even though you stop the mediction (medication)) you could have occasional 'flashbacks' so to speak, occur for a long time ,or not at all. The brain 'remembers' the 'going over the cliff' fear, and when you are in a similar situation of 'motion' and horizon/edge being close, you can have  flashback of the cold fear and sense of dizziness that occurred. Once I stopped the Minocycline, I never had another total 'vertigo' episode...but I have had a few of the 'flashback' memories of cold fear and slight dizziness etc. Almost always on an 'elevated' freeway or ramp, with no guardrails to visually mark an 'edge' or the horizon. As time passes, they are very rare now.  But BE AWARE that ANTIBIOTICS can cause VERTIGO....not just 'dizziness!


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[CheeserNurse]

This is interesting...do you know if Atenolol (anti-hypertensive med) can cause vertigo as well?? I was recently put on Atenolol 25 mg (I only take 12.5mg/day) for high blood pressure, but my physician doesn't believe that it can cause all of the symptoms I'm experiencing - MS-like symptoms. I check my blood pressure everytime I experience the vertigo to see if it has dropped too low which could explain the feeling like I'm going to pass out, but it's always normal. The vertigo I feel resembles like I am getting off of an escalator or on a boat that will not stop rocking, and it's worse when I'm in a sitting position or standing still position...weird!

Thanks for the heads up!

[Janine677]

I have has vertigo for 5 months now, I have seen 2 ENT specialist the 1st said that I had stress and that was the cause, I am not under stress, the second said I had brain trama, I know I don't.  Then I saw a GP and she told me I had a ear infection.  I was put on antbiotic's and I was feeling great and then I had a allergic reaction to them and I was taken off them by another doctor who said that the ear infection had cleared up.  I am dizzy all over again.  I am losing my mind!